The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for January 2011

19.01.2011 UCP activist Sachyuka charged with perjury

On 19 January, Minsk police detained United Civil Party member Siarhei Sachyuka. The activist was reportedly charged with providing false testimony to the KGB investigators, as he was serving his 10-day sentence for participating in the 19 December post-election protest rally.

19.01.2011 Search in Mazyr district

On 18 January Belarusian law-enforcement agencies conducted a search in the private house of Ales Kavalchuk, election agent of former presidential candidate Vital Rymasheuski, located in the town of Kozinki, Mazyr district.

19.01.2011 Euro Parliament HR chief expresses concern over recent harassment of “Viasna” activists

Heidi Anneli Hautala, chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament, has released a statement at her personal web-site, saying that she “received with great alarm the news of yet another search at the Viasna Human Rights Centre in Minsk and a brief arrest of the Centre’s President, Mr Ales Bialiatski, on 17th of January.”

19.01.2011 URGENT APPEAL – THE OBSERVATORY

The Observatory urges the authorities of Belarus to put an end to all forms of harassment against the above-mentioned organisations and their members, in particular Mr. Ales Bialiatski and ensure that in all circumstances its members are able to carry out their work freely without any hindrances.

18.01.2011 Journalist Haretski sentenced to 14 days of arrest

Today, Minsk Maskouski Court sentenced Barys Haretski, journalist of the Radio Racyja, to 14 days of imprisonment for alleged participation in an illegal picket outside the KGB pre-trial prison on 17 January.

18.01.2011 Interrogations and searches still underway

Mazyr: the private apartment of Aliaksandr Kavalchuk, election agent of former presidential candidate Vital Rymasheuski, was searched by the KGB.

18.01.2011 Viasna’s office raided again

Yesterday, on 17 January Belarusian KGB searched the central office of the Human Rights Center Viasna, as well as the private apartment and the country house of Ales Bialiatski. The searches were said to be conducted in the framework of the 19 December mass riot criminal case. It was a second search in Viasna’s office, following another one on 20 December.

17.01.2011 Journalist Haretski detained outside KGB prison

Journalist Barys Haretski has been reportedly detained by Minsk police, as he was interviewing the families of the accused in the 19 December mass riots case outside the KGB prison.

17.01.2011 BPF activists Shpak-Ryzhkau fired

Yuras Shpak-Ryzhkau, member of the Belarusian Popular Front party and ex-member of Minsk election commission #4 during the 2010 presidential election, has been fired by his employer at the Minharsviatlo state-owned enterprise for alleged absence from work.

15.01.2011 Pukhavichy district: teacher loses her job

Natallia Illinich, the teacher of history at the secondary school in the town of Talka, can lose her job. Her labor contract expires on 27 January, and on 11 January the schoolmaster, Natallia Merkul, told her that the contract won't be extended. Meanwhile, according to the existing laws, the employers must inform their employees about dismissal in a month's advance.

15.01.2011 Head of BPF Youth Vitsebsk branch detained by unidentified people

Aliaksandr Kuzniatsou, the Chairperson of the Vitsebsk branch of the BPF Youth and an electioneering agent of the presidential candidate Ryhor Kastusiou was forcedly pulled into a car without number plates in presence of a friend of his.

15.01.2011 Details of recent searches in Belarus

KGB and police continue searching the apartments of civil and political activists within the framework of a criminal case upon Article 293, 'mass riot', concerning the protest rally of 19 December.

14.01.2011 Court didn’t punish officials for failure to present information to ecologists

The Hrodna Region Economic Court refused to oblige the direction of the construction of the nuclear power plant in Astravets to familiarize the public circles with documentation concerning the NPP construction. According to Regnum, this information was given on 12 January by a lawyer of the Ekadom NGO, Siarhei Mahonau.

14.01.2011 Homel: Kanstantsin Zhukouski sentenced to 8 days of arrest

On 13 January the Tsentralny District Court of Homel punished a civil activist Kanstantsin Zhukouski with 8 days of arrest upon Article 17.1 of the Criminal Code, ‘disorderly conduct’.

14.01.2011 Aliaksandr Vasileuski – another suspect in ‘mass riot’ case

Aliaksandr Vasileuski had served a 15-day arrest for participation in the protest action of 19 December. Investigators of the Tsentralny District Police Department of Minsk came to his apartment late in the evening and presented a warrant for his detention as a suspect in the criminal case upon Article 293, instigated concerning the events of 19 December. The warrant was signed by an investigator of the Tsentralny District Police Department of Minsk Yu. Baraznouski, on agreement of an investigator of the preliminary investigation board, lieutenant colonel H.Kazakevich.